This invention relates to work cutting or grooving apparatus and has particular relationship to such cutting or grooving where the work is of substantial mass. In the interest of concreteness this application deals with the grooving of rolls such as are used in the steel and related industries. Such use is typical of work to which this invention is applicable. It is to be understood that this practice is adopted only to aid those skilled in the art in practicing this invention and not with any intention of limiting the scope of this invention; this invention is applicable to the cutting or grooving of other work than rolls.
Typically, a roll may be composed of tool steel or a ferretic alloy or other material and may have a diameter of forty inches or more and a weight of seventy-five or one hundred tons or more. The roll is cast and when it solidifies, it has an indentation on the head end due to impurities and shrinkage, and it is necessary that this end be severed or machined off. The practice in severing the end is to groove the end of the roll to a substantial depth and then to break off the end. In accordance with the teachings of the prior art the roll is rotated and as it is rotated, it is grooved by a cutting tool which is moved transversely by manual operation of a crank into cutting engagement with the roll. At the same time the speed of rotation of the roll is increased by hand to correspond to the lateral cranked movement.
This practice is highly time consuming.
Typically, a forty-inch diameter roll is grooved to a diameter of about ten inches and is then broken off. This grooving in accordance with the practice of the prior art consumes up to thirty-two hours cutting time. In addition, the mounting of the roll for cutting consumes about two hours.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art and to provide, for work cutting or grooving, apparatus which shall operate at a high cutting rate.